Ticketmaster opens Seattle office led by Amazon vets

Technology companies continue to arrive on the shores of Seattle, attracted by the region’s top-notch software talent. The latest example is Ticketmaster, which announced today that it has opened a new engineering center in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood.

“We have the most challenging eCommerce environment on the planet and our Seattle team will be instrumental in bringing to life our mission of fundamentally changing the way fans will purchase tickets in the future,” said Cameron Etezadi, senior vice president of Ticketmaster, in a statement. “This is a rare and exciting opportunity as our Seattle office will be much like a start-up, developing software with a green-field approach while tapping into an unparalleled industry knowledge base.”

Cameron Etezadi

Ticketmaster — a unit of Live Nation Entertainment — now attracts about 27 million visitors per month.

Etezadi is joined in leading the new office by Werner Koepf, both of whom previously worked at Amazon.com. Koepf most recently served as vice president of technology and product at Wetpaint, and before that worked as a vice president at Expedia.

Ticketmaster joins a number of technology giants — including Facebook, Google, EMC, eBay and Hulu — which have chosen to locate technical operations in the area. Earlier this month, Facebook moved into a new office in Seattle with room for 170 employees, while Google now employs about 1,000 people in the region split between offices in Kirkland and Seattle.

The arrival of the tech titans is helping to reshape the landscape of the tech industry in Seattle, diversifying it beyond the stalwarts of Expedia, Microsoft and Amazon.com.

John Cook is GeekWire's co-founder and editor, a veteran reporter and the longest-serving journalist on the Pacific Northwest tech startup beat. Follow him @johnhcook and email john@geekwire.com.